System: Valve Index & HTC Vive
Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Green
Genre: Interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers
Best Playing Position: Standing
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG
VR Shop Score 1/100: 50
Description: This VR experience uses the architectural design by M@ STUDIO Architects for the 2016 National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Architecture Commission titled “Haven’t you always wanted…?” which transplanted a familiar object (a suburban car wash) into an unfamiliar surrounding (the art gallery) and explores ideas of ‘uncertain conditions’ and ‘dematerialisation’ using materials such as multiple layers of cricket netting – that create moire effects – and hot pink astro turf.
‘If only…’ asks what if we could experience the changes we make to an architectural design in real-time and from inside the architectural space and see the effects of the transformation from morning through to evening. The materiality of the pavilion can be changed in ways that may not, in reality, be possible or practical (such as gold netting), while you can teleport to different locations inside and outside the pavilion.
Review: If Only… is a weird experience for sure and I can only guess that it only realy makes sense if you visit the car-wash art installation itself. You can change the design and colour of certain things, but I guess to answer your own design queries of what if…this was gold. Or this was gone and that was red? Those sort of things. It is a good use of VR I suppose, but to most people, it isn’t going to make much sense at all.
